Written Questions

Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to the answer of 4 September 2012, Official Report, column 320W, on written questions, how many written questions were tabled on average per day, including non-sitting days (a) in each session since 2005-06 and (b) from the introduction of the restriction on e-tabling to date.

John Thurso: The information requested is as follows.
	(a) The following table shows the number of written questions tabled on average per sitting day in each session since 2005-06:
	
		
			 Time period Number of sitting days Number of WPQs tabled Average 
			 Session 2005-06 (17 May 2005 to 8 November 2006) 208 97,201 467 
			 Session 2006-07 (15 November 2006 to 30 October 2007) 146 58,837 403 
			 Session 2007-08 (6 November 2007 to 26 November 2008) 165 75,000 455 
			 Session 2008-09 (3 December 2008 to 12 November 2009) 139 57,054 410 
			 Session 2009-10 (18 November 2009 to 8 April 2010) 601 24,0931 402 
			 Session 2010-12 (25 May 2010 to 1 May 2012) 295 98,256 333 
			 Session 2012-13 to date (9 May 2012 to 7 September 2012) 39 13,350 342 
		
	
	(b) The restriction on the number of e-tabled questions was introduced at the rising of the House on 21 October 2011. During the period 24 October 2011 to 7 September 2012, the number of sitting days was 125, the number of written questions tabled was 40,322. The number of written questions tabled on average per sitting day over this period was 323.
	Averages are calculated against sitting days only (information is not readily available to disaggregate questions tabled on sitting and non-sitting days over this timeframe).